


The Minister's Secret

by Kessarole



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29861397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kessarole/pseuds/Kessarole
Summary: Eris Fudge is the Minster of Magic's daughter; she begins her schooling as an unsorted third-year at Hogwarts. She reunites with her long-time acquaintance Draco Malfoy and she meets some new friends - all the while actively avoiding her father's frantic attempts to contact her and keep her from revealing the very thing he worked so hard to keep from the world.Eris, with her newfound ambition to live her life free from the rule of her father, decides that if it should come to it, she wasn't going to hide his secret any longer - it wasn't his secret to hide in the first place, after all.





	1. ◇Studere◇

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT

"Darling, don't you think this is a little extreme?" Mrs. Fudge pleaded as her daughter shoved the last of her required books into her brand new bookbag.

"I could ask the same of Father when he decided to keep me at home instead of going to school," Eris said. "I think we have far surpassed extreme, mother. There's no use in fighting it." She heaved the bag over her shoulder and brushed past her mother to the corridor outside her bedroom. Her feet rattled down the stairs and she turned into the living room, tossing her bag haphazardly onto the small pile of suitcases she'd collected in the fireplace. She grabbed a fistful of the powder from the pail sitting on the mantelpiece and gazed at her belongings.

"The Three Broomsticks!" She called, tossing the powder at the pile and watching as it all disappeared in a flash of green fire.

"Eris, dear," Mrs. Fudge called from the entryway. "Why didn't you just ask?" Eris's mother was a soft-spoken woman, it didn't at all suit her harsh appearance; you would easily find that her severe eyebrows and permanent frown were highly contrasted with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches she would leave on the kitchen counter before she locked herself in her office for the day.

Eris collapsed on the squashy white armchair nearest to the fireplace. "Do you really think your husband would have let me go if I had?" She asked, staring at the ashes in the fire grate as if she was willing all her frustration to burst them into flame. She always seemed to be staring intensely at something - so odd compared to both her parent's kind gazes; she had been told on many occasions that she was her own person, unlike her parents in almost every way - maybe with the exception of her father's stubborn demeanor and her mother's dark hair that never seemed comfortable enough to wear completely up or completely down.

"Maybe with some persuasion," her mother said. "He's extremely concerned about you." She moved around the armchair and crouched in front of Eris, grabbing one of her hands, trying to make eye contact.

Her daughter coughed out a little sound of laughter. She wrenched her hand from her mother's grip as though she had burned her and sat more upright in the chair. "I think he's more concerned with his political image than with my sanity while I rot away in this prison of a house." Eris tugged her fingers through her hair and breathed out through her teeth. "He'd rather keep me cooped up here than let word get out about my 'condition,'" she said with a huff.

For three days, her and her mother had been battling about this issue. Her mother was constantly assuring her that her father loved her and wanted what was best for her. And Eris was assuring her right back that he would first quit his job as Minister of Magic before he set up her schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry himself. 

She was on schedule to attend two years ago. However, a terrible tragedy struck their lives and her father had decided Eris was to proceed with her education at home; where there was no chance that word of the tragedy would get out. 

Eris put her foot down after her father refused to hire a Divinations professor the previous year and set out to arrange for her attendance at Hogwarts for the following year on her own. Of course, she made sure her parents didn't know about this plan of hers until it was too late. They had argued that she needed guardian permission to attend, and she reminded them that they had signed the papers right before the incident; that was all the headmaster had needed to approve her request. Naturally, her father was furious and attempted to get headmaster Dumbledore to revoke his original permissions. Thankfully, Dumbledore was on Eris's side and got her father to stand down.

Eris had been rather delighted when the famed Harry Potter was tagged for use of underage magic earlier in the week and her father rushed off on the case. It meant she only had to deal with her mother, who was far easier to reason with. However, that didn't stop the constant headache she caused.

"Now, young lady-"

"Don't 'young lady' me, mum." Eris stood up and moved past Mrs. Fudge, plucking her cat Opi from his resting spot on the windowsill. "You and I both know it's been a few years since I've been properly young." The tragedy that struck her life when she was eleven was one that constantly lingered in her head, and she had matured past her age without issue as a result. She cradled the dark cat against her loose bay hoodie, scratching his chin with two fingers. He purred happily, his paws flexing on her arm.

Mrs. Fudge sighed. It sounded like one of defeat and it made Eris turn to face her. Her mother had slumped into the armchair Eris had previously occupied and was holding her head in her hands. 

She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, then looked up at her daughter. "What time are you meant to leave?" She asked. 

Eris smirked in triumph. "5 o' clock - I don't want to miss the Sorting ceremony."

Her mother chuckled as if her husband had just told her one of his bad jokes. "Of course you don't - no one in their right mind would want to miss it." She stood up and moved to Eris, folding her into her chest. Opi meowed in annoyance, but stayed put, sandwiched between Mrs. Fudge and Eris. "I just hope your father won't be too disappointed to see you've gone." She released her daughter, grinning. Eris thought about saying something about how he would be rather relieved, but decided against it; she'd just gotten her mother to accept her departure, she wasn't going to sabotage that.

At 5 o'clock that evening, Eris said her last goodbyes to her mother before she stood in the fireplace, cradling Opi against her chest with one hand, holding the Floo Powder in the other.

"The Three Broomsticks!" She exclaimed as she threw the powder at her feet. There was a tug on her naval and next thing she knew, she was standing in the fireplace at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade village. She quickly stepped out; just in time, too, as another student took her place shortly after with his parents on either side of him.

Eris opened her arm holding Opi and let him hop onto the ground. He followed behind her as she greeted Madam Rosmerta - the owner of the Three Broomsticks- and exited the pub. Dumbledore had earlier insisted that Eris take the boats with the first years, but upon hearing that Eris had severe motion-sickness, he thought it would be best if she avoided both the Hogwarts Express and the boats.

Eris wandered down the High Street, her eyes landing on the not-too-distant silhouette of Hogwarts castle in the distance. She followed the other witches and wizards to the castle with Opi following at her feet.

Eris stepped toward the castle twenty minutes later, gazing up at the towering structure of Hogwarts in awe. This was the first time she was seeing it as the place she would receive her education. Her stomach began to churn and she clutched at it with a grimace. She had heard about the events of the last two years, all involving the prophesized Harry Potter -- the only known person to have survived the killing curse; from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, no less. And it didn't help that she had no clue who she was to be housed with. She was in her third year and had not been Sorted. It was an unusual situation, to say the least.

The entrance hall was crawling with first years, most looking a little chilled from the ride across the lake. Eris was unsure whether it was appropriate for her to be standing with the younger students, but she stayed put, keeping to the wall while the first years chittered anxiously with one another.

The doors to the Great Hall cracked open and admitted a stern-looking woman whom Eris recognized as Professor McGonagoll; they had met briefly on Eris's visit to Hogwarts in the summer before what should have been her first year. 

Professor McGonagoll faced the first years with a simple smile. "They're ready for you," she said. With that, the first years poured into the Great Hall after the professor. Eris tried her best to stay near the back, but got swept into the crowd. 

The Great Hall was bright and the enchanted ceiling mirrored the clear, starry sky outside. When Eris had visited two years ago, there had been banners drifting overhead with the symbols and colors from each house (Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff), but they were decorated with the Hogwarts school crest now. The other students watched with excitement as the first years and Eris crowded the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables and stopped in front of the staff table at the back of the hall. Eris shuffled to the edge of the crowd closest to the Hufflepuffs, narrowly dodging a flying elbow as one of the students swung around to look at the first years.

Eris stood with the uneasy first years, all awaiting their turn to sit beneath the Sorting Hat, of which was seated on a rickety wooden stool being put down by Professor McGonagoll. Eris glanced at each table - save for Slytherin - searching for a familiar face anywhere she could. All she managed to find was Ronald Weasley - she knew his face, like most wizards did after his family won the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw - at the Gryffindor table. Eris knew Arthur Weasley and thought he could be amusing sometimes, but her father rather disliked him and found every excuse to never invite him to dinner - especially if he wanted to bring any of his children; this meant Eris had never met any other Weasley. She dragged her gaze away from Ronald, her stomach clenching more with every face she passed over and didn't recognize. 

"Eris Fudge," Professor McGonagall called. Eris hadn't realized that they had begun the ceremonies and she stood up straight at the mention of her name. It seems she would be the first one to go up. They usually started alphabetically from what she had heard from her parents; it made perfect sense that she would be an exception, due to her age.

Eris gulped hard against the lump in her throat, pulling at her fingers as she maneuvered through the crowd of first years. They all looked wide-eyed and confused as she climbed up the steps to the stool sitting at the front of the room, where Professor McGonagall waited, a gentle smile splitting her hawk-like face while she held a roll of parchment in her slender hands. Eris's hands shook as she sat herself on the stool. She placed the hat on her head, sat on her hands, and dared a glance at the Slytherin table. She recognized another face, though not necessarily one she had been particularly excited to see. Draco Malfoy. He was watching her with detached amusement while the others around him whispered to each other behind their hands. She averted her eyes and stared straight ahead, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Eris had never been concerned with her house, nor was she ever swayed into believing she belonged in any particular one; although, her father was convinced she would be sorted into Ravenclaw - it was his feeble attempt to relate in some way with Eris. 

It seemed the Sorting Hat had picked up on Eris's spike of apprehension when she saw Draco. "He was easy to sort," said the hat. Eris stiffened. "You knew that, of course," the hat whispered to her. Eris's eyes flitted over the faces of the students for any signs that they had heard what the hat said, but it seemed she was the only one who had heard. "You... are a bit more complicated. You'd do rather well in Hufflepuff... There is that determination..." The hat implored. Eris moved her eyes to the Hufflepuff table. She thought that might be the case. She wasn't resigned to hate the idea; however, she wasn't sure she was as well-behaved as most Hufflepuffs were expected to be. "But alas... it seems..." After a moment of eerie silence, the hat spoke, louder this time. "Slytherin!" Eris's heart dropped to her stomach. Of all the things she had expected, it hadn't been that.

She stood and moved down the steps to join her fellow house-mates. While her results weren't what she expected, she couldn't deny the smile that spread over her face, or the warmth that flooded through her and immediately cured the icy chill in her hands as the Slytherins welcomed her, patting her back and clapping her on the shoulder as she moved past them.

Somewhere in the rush of things, Eris was placed in an empty seat at the table, where she watched the first years be sorted into their respective houses.

After the last student was sorted, the Headmaster stepped forward as Professor McGonagoll retreated to the staff table, a small smile playing about her lips - Eris had the impression that she rather enjoyed hosting the Sorting ceremony.

"Welcome!" Headmaster Dumbledore began. He looked around for a moment with a kind smile. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..." Eris glanced at the empty golden platters on the table, her hand travelling to her stomach as she realized that she hadn't eaten since breakfast. "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

Eris knew of this, of course; it was one of the few arguments her father had introduced when she revealed she would be attending Hogwarts. Dementors were the most feared creatures in the Wizarding World, and her father was no exception to the horror they spread. She had seen one, once; she hadn't been close enough to feel the effects she had been warned about, but there had been an evident chill in the room that hadn't been there before.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission," Dumbledore continued. "Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises - or even invisibility cloaks. It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses." Dumbledore's demeanor had changed significantly from when he first stood before the school; where he had been excited and eager before, he was now plagued by a dull and serious air. "I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors." Dumbledore eyed his audience for a moment, then proceeded with newfound energy to introduce the new teachers - Professor Lupin, who would be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Hagrid, who would be taking the position as the Care of Magical Creatures professor.

Eris clapped with the others and fell onto the food as it appeared on the platters, her eyes flitting upwards as the banners above the tables fluttered, revealing the house crests. She became acquainted with the Slytherins sitting around her; one of them introduced herself as Pansy Parkinson, another as Blaise Zabini. Eris introduced herself and when asked why she looked so much older than the other first years, she explained how her father hadn't let her come for the last two years.

"Oh, wow, that's fascinating!" Blaise said, holding a bread roll in his right hand. "Why didn't the Minister let you attend earlier?" He asked.

"Oh, uh..." Eris trailed off, looking down at the half-empty plate she had been picking off as if she had had a big lunch, which, of course, was far from the truth.

"He didn't even want you to come this year, either, I hear." Eris turned with a start when someone spoke behind her shoulder. Her eyes stopped on the slender, light-haired boy she had previously recognized when she was sat under the Sorting Hat.

"I don't believe that's any of your business, Malfoy," Eris said, turning back to face Blaise.

"Oh, you two know each other?" Pansy asked, with an edge of something Eris found hard to identify.

"Oh yes," Draco nudged the girl sitting to the left of Eris, signaling her to move down. He sat at Eris's elbow. "Yes, we know each other well."

Eris glared at Draco out of the corner of her eye. "He's a liar." She paused, sighing as the others furrowed their brows at her. "We've met on numerous occasions, but only briefly," she explained, picking at the mashed potatoes on her plate with her fork.

"Oh, come on Fudge," Draco said, draping his arm around her neck. "We're besties." He squeezed, pulling her close to him. Eris shoved him away and stood up in one smooth motion. 

"If you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of one of the prefects, I would much appreciate it," Eris grumbled, glowering at Draco.

"Right here." Eris turned, facing the girl that Draco had nudged away just moments ago. "Is there something you need?" She asked. 

"I'd like to be shown to the dormitory, please." 

The girl nodded, tossing her fork down on her plate as she stood up. 

"Leaving so soon, Fudge?" Draco taunted.

Eris followed the prefect out of the Great Hall without responding to the Malfoy brat.

Unpacking her things wasn't a tedious task, nor did it take long, even with Opi attempting to get her attention by sitting on the things she needed to move. She finished slipping out of her long black robe just as her roommates began to arrive (she was relieved to see that she would be sharing a room with at least one girl she had already met - Pansy). To avoid the bustle of the other girls settling in, she retreated to the common room with a book clutched in her hand. When Eris arrived there, though, it was packed with Slytherins greeting each other and detailing their summer vacations. Eris had planned on sitting near the fireplace to read, but found, to her dismay, that the area seemed popular. So, she left the dungeons in search of somewhere more peaceful to have her well-deserved reading time - she hadn't had any since before she told her parents about her plans to attend Hogwarts.

It didn't take long to find a place that seemed suitable. There was a hall that faced the quidditch practice pitch, with only a low stone ledge to separate the hall from the greenery. Eris climbed up on the ledge, pressing her back against one of the matching stone pillars as she opened the book on her lap. Before she began to read, she took a deep breath of fresh air, the warm currents of air whispering over her pale skin.

"Running away again, are we?" 

Eris groaned at the familiar orotund voice. She snapped her book shut and slid off the ledge. "What in the world are you talking about?" She asked Draco.

"Running from your own House, just like you ran from your father." Draco was in his leisure clothing, leaning against the wall across from her with his arms crossed over his chest. 

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Eris scoffed, setting her book on the stone ledge she was now leaning against; a signal that she didn't plan to leave this time.

"My father told me about his conversation with the Minister. It sounds like you are running from dear daddy Fudge." 

Eris's stomach dropped down to her heels. Her hands began to sweat and shake, and shudders ran up and down her spine "What did he tell you?" She snapped as she stepped forward, fully intending to shut down one of his snarky remarks about her situation.

Draco held his hands up calmly in defense. "Only that you arranged to attend Hogwarts on your own."

Eris's hands unclenched and she slumped against the low wall. She sighed, "Whatever."

Draco scoffed, "'Whatever?'" He repeated as he pushed away from the wall, then took a few steps closer to Eris. "That's probably the most..." he paused, searching for the right word. "Defiant thing you've ever done." He looked Eris up and down with a smirk that told Eris he didn't normally think highly of her. "I admire what you did."

"Get off your high hippogriff, Draco. Need I tell you again? I don't need or want your crazy adulations." Eris turned to retrieve her book.

"Wait, Fudge." His tone retreated from its usual malice and became a bit softer, however slight. "I..." he dragged a hand over his face. "I'm sorry."

Eris froze, her gaze suspended on the ground. She had never heard an apology from Draco unless it was a frantic attempt to appease his father. Not that this one sounded particularly sincere, but it was an apology nevertheless.

"Just... let me speak," he said. He didn't seem desperate, Eris noted. Rather, he seemed tired.

Eris sighed, her eyebrows creased into a harsh "v." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Why should I give you the light of day?"

"You shouldn't," he started. "Fortunately for me, there's little daylight left for you to give." He smirked, gesturing to the quickly purpling sky beyond the low stone wall with his slender, pasty hand.

Eris glanced at the sky and rolled her eyes. "Fine. What do you want?" She asked, returning her gaze to Draco.

He removed one of his hands from his pockets and held it out to her. "A truce," he offered.

Eris stared at his outstretched hand, then back up at his face. "Why?"

"We've similar issues with our Ministry fathers. Maybe we can help each other out." As he explained this, Eris raised her eyebrows.

"You? You have issues with your father?" She wouldn't have been so surprised if Mr. Malfoy's son was anyone else, but he and Draco had always been incredibly complementary.

Draco dropped his hand and leaned back coolly. "Secret's bound to come out somehow. Better with someone with the same problems, eh?" he said.

"You have no idea about my problems, Malfoy." Eris puffed her chest. 

"Then tell me, Fudge," said Draco. "Give me an idea."

"If I did, my father would fire yours and pull me out of school before you can say pudding," said Eris. "The only idea I'll give you is the one where you stay away from me."

Instead of looking offended, Draco's face cracked into a mischievous grin. He held his hand out again. "Truce?"

Eris tried to force back a smirk, but ultimately failed. She grabbed her book from the ledge and brushed past him. 

"We'll see, Malfoy, we'll see."


	2. ◇Pavor◇

It was a few hours before dawn when Eris started awake, panting. 

Despite her racing heart, she wasn't concerned; she had been waking up in a cold sweat at least once every night for two years. She always woke from a dream she couldn't quite remember, but always had a sinking feeling in her stomach that told her it wasn't anything she wanted to remember.

She turned on her side and gazed absently at her wand, where it sat on her nightstand. She had tried desperately to figure out what could cause her nightmares so bad she woke up breathing as though she had just run the length of the lake without stopping. It hadn't taken her long to give up on trying to retrieve what her mind was so clearly hiding from her; maybe it was best that she didn't know.

At breakfast the next morning, Eris arrived in the Great Hall after her roommates (Pansy, Milicent Bulstrode, and Araminta Warbeck) had already left the dormitory. There were eyes on her from the moment she appeared in the doorway. She was used to attention, but she had held out hope that the curiosity of the other students would fade after the first day. 

She heaved in a deep breath, the scents from the food at the tables tickling her nose. She moved toward the Slytherin table, fully intending to sit near Blaise. Before she could spot him, however, someone called her name from the closest end of the table. 

She turned, knowing full well that the voice calling her name belonged to Draco.

"Sit here," he said. "I want you to meet a few of my mates." Draco waved her over, patting the empty space to the right of him. 

"I was going to sit with Blaise," Eris responded, finally catching sight of him. She caught his eye and smiled, tilting her hand at him. 

He smiled back, his mouth moving as he chewed on his breakfast.

"You can sit with him later," Draco retorted, patting the seat again. 

Eris rolled her eyes and shot Blaise an apologetic smile, gesturing at Draco. 

Blaise nodded and continued his conversation with a couple of other Slytherin third years. 

Eris dropped down into the spot next to Draco, propping her book bag against herself, as a sort of barrier between them. 

Draco didn't seem to notice this and grinned at her, gesturing to one of the boys across the table. "This is Crabbe." 

Eris smiled at the bulky boy and he smiled back as much as he could with all the food in his mouth but quickly gave up and instead settled for a little wave of his stubby fingers. 

"Goyle." Draco nodded his head at the other boy. He was quite large, and seemed to Eris to be somewhat of a gentle giant. He looked up and grinned at Eris nevertheless, looking as if he had no idea what was happening. 

Draco moved his gaze to the girl sitting directly across from him, "And-"

"Pansy," Eris interrupted, smiling at her. Upon seeing Draco's surprise, Eris told him, "She's my roommate." 

Pansy grinned wide, looking to be elated at the recognition.

"So what's up with you?" Crabbe asked, having finally swallowed his food. "Your dad's the Minister, eh?"

Eris cleared her throat and nodded, avoiding the inquiring looks of the others.

"You can't get expelled then, right?" asked Pansy.

Eris chuckled. "Only as easily as Draco can."

"So you can't get expelled," Crabbe stated. 

Draco, sloshing some porridge into his bowl, said. "You can't get expelled either." 

Crabbe threw a piece of bread across the table at Draco, missing and hitting a fourth year Hufflepuff who was passing behind Eris and Draco. The group erupted into uncontrolled laughter after the Hufflepuff had finished casting them a nasty look. 

"Tell us Draco!" A first year Slytherin approached the recovering group at the table with two of her friends. "Tell us what happened on the train!" The children looked absolutely taken with Draco, shivering with excitement.

Draco swung around with a wicked grin on his face. "I'll only tell the story once," he said. The first years scuttled off to gather their other Slytherin buddies.

"Does this have anything to do with the dementors?" Eris asked, watching the first years move around the Slytherin table, relaying the message to the other first years and evidently catching the attention of the upper years, judging by the mischievous grins that unfurled over their faces.

"Wait and find out," Draco teased. The first years scrambled back to Draco, announcing their arrival with a tug of Draco's sleeve. Some others had gathered around too, shoving their way into spots on the benches that were too small for them to fit, or standing if they decided not to risk their personal space.

Draco smiled mischievously and stood, beginning his story. "The train had stopped and the lights had gone out," he began. "Harry Potter the tosser and all his little friends were stuck in a boxcar with the nutter Professor Lupin," he imitated Harry Potter by shoving his hair in all directions and putting his fingers in little circles around his eyes. Eris couldn't help smirking when he struggled to get his usually-kept hair to look rumpled. "The door to their compartment opened." He paused, for effect. "A chill fell throughout the boxcar and there stood a dementor!" He abandoned his Potter charade, flipping up the hood on his robes to cover his face, reaching his hands out limply. "And when the dementor reached his hand out" - he imitated this with an exaggerated rattling breath - "the boy who lived immediately fell down and started to cry!" He said all this loudly enough for all the Slytherins to hear and laugh at, then pushed off his hood and mimicked an exceedingly exaggerated fall to the floor, the back of his hand pressed against his forehead. This produced a roar of laughter from the children and some of the surrounding students. "Mummy! Daddy! He's after me!" Draco called out in a penetrating voice while he writhed on the ground. 

Eris spotted the Potter boy and his friends, catching Hermione's eye for only a second before she ducked her head and kept moving, frowning. Eris frowned too, catching up her fork and pretending to accidentally let it slip from her fingers - right onto Draco's head. "Oy!" He exclaimed, sitting up as he rubbed the spot the fork handle hit him.

"Go eat your breakfast, all of you!" Eris shooed the surrounding students away with a half-hearted smile and they all scattered like mice, glancing over their shoulders and laughing. 

Eris turned back to the table, where Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy were unabashedly cackling; Pansy was gripping Crabbe's shoulder with what looked to Eris like an iron grip, but Crabbe didn't seem to notice.

Eris fixated on her empty plate as Draco returned to his seat.

"What was that about?" He asked. He leaned against the table, furrowing his brow at Eris as Pansy yelled further torments at the Potter boy from where she sat.

"It slipped, that's all," Eris lied. 

Draco scrutinized her for a moment and opened his mouth to say something.

"Here." the Slytherin prefect, Birch Minks handed them all their schedules, saving Eris from any further explanation for her actions. Eris tore hers open immediately. 

Divination was first - in the North tower. She hummed, trying to remember if she had ever been there. As she thought, a flurry of colors moved around above her head. She looked up, crestfallen when she realized it was the mail and that her father's owl, Abernathy had landed next to her empty plate in a timid fashion. She stared at the letter tied to his leg and blinked a few times. Abernathy hooted, lifting his leg as a gesture for her to take it. 

Draco noticed Eris's hesitation and reached over, untying the letter from the tawny owl and putting it to the side. Abernathy tried to nip at his hand, hooted and took off.

Draco glared after the bird. "I can hold it for you," he said, pushing a grape into his mouth with a pop! "Or I could just burn it," he added without looking at her.

"Whatever is in that letter won't be worth my time." Eris sighed. "I better be off." When Draco tried to hand her the letter, Eris just tossed it back on the table. "Let them do what they will with it," she said. 

Draco stared at the letter as she left, clutching the strap of her book bag with both hands until she reached the entrance hall. 

Eris managed to find the North tower, but climbing it was no easy feat. She reached the final landing, panting hard. A passageway cut off to her right, but otherwise, there was no sign of the Divination class. Eris leaned against the wall, silently cursing herself for trusting Mr. Filch to give her directions, however much he might have actually wanted to help her. Once her breathing had slowed and she could once again listen to the sounds around her, uninterrupted by the rushing of blood in her ears, she could hear voices down the corridor. She frowned, but decided that following the voices was a better option than climbing back down the seven flights of stairs.

The voices led all the way down the corridor, only fading when she reached the bottom of a spiral staircase. She groaned, but pushed herself forward, putting a hand on the wall to her right to keep her balance on the narrow steps. When she reached the top, several students were scrambling up a rather precarious step ladder into a circular trap door set into the ceiling. 

When it was her turn to ascend the ladder, Eris eyed it before she scrambled up, afraid it might fall out from below her. She straightened up and turned to examine the classroom; though, she couldn't exactly call it that. It was more of a family room cluttered with various items Eris had never seen before and couldn't even begin to describe. There were several stout tables surrounded by armchairs and poufs, all of which the other students were milling around, gazing at the contents of the room with uneasy glances.

Eris couldn't help but smile; if her father was here now, he would not be bright red only from the effort of climbing the stairs, but from being in the presence of a study he would have eradicated from the school long ago if he could have.

"Welcome," a breathy voice said. Eris jumped, but only a little, at the sudden voice. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last." The voice belonged to a wiry woman, whose glasses magnified her already large eyes. She jingled as she moved, due to the myriad of jewelry adorning her neck and wrists. "Sit, my children, sit." 

Eris looked around wildly for anyone to sit next to and settled for the nervous-looking Gryffindor boy at a table placed close to the bug-like woman. 

"Welcome to Divination," she said. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye." 

The room remained silent and Eris glanced at the boy across the table who looked back and gulped, though Eris suspected it was because he recognized the color of her tie. 

"So," Professor Trelawney broke the silence. "You have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts." Eris doubted the sentence was very truthful, but she listened nevertheless. "I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..." 

Eris looked down at her book bag, considering leaving it in her dormitory next time. 

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelwany's eyes slid over Eris. "It is a Gift granted to few." She stopped at the nervous boy. "You, boy," she said. The boy started, eyes wide. "Is your grandmother well?"

The boy gulped yet again and gazed around at the many pairs of eyes staring at him. "I think so," he said quietly.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, tilting her head ever so slightly. She stared at the boy a moment longer as his face turned a bright pink color, then returned her attention back to the rest of the class. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves." Eris perked up; she had heard of this study and had been interested for years. It was one of the things that drove her to come to Hogwarts. "Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," Professor Trelawney redirected her attention to a girl on the opposite side of the room, dressed in her crisp Gryffindor robes. "beware a red-haired man." The girl's eyes darted to Ronald Weasley, who sat near the trap door with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Eris bit her cheek at the comedic value of the exchange. 

"In the second term," Professor Trelawney continued, "we shall progress to the crystal ball - if we have finished with fire omens, that is." 

Eris progressively lost interest as the Professor continued with her explanation of the class's learning points and her arbitrary predictions of the students. She only began to listen again when Professor Trelawney started to instruct. 

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink only until the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh and dear"-- she caught the nervous boy as he moved to get his teacup - "after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink." 

It seemed that no one had believed that what Professor Trelawney had predicted would happen, but it did. The boy flushed a bright red, staring at the shattered glass on the floor. The Professor hurried over with a dustpan and broom and directed the boy to the blue cups.

Eris and the boy settled at their table, trying their best to gulp down their tea quickly. Eris would much rather be drinking her tea with some ice, which made this task quite difficult for her. Once they finished their tea, Eris and the boy (Neville Longbottom) exchanged names and teacups. They didn't speak much while they studied the leaves, mostly referencing pages five and six of their books for help. Eris sighed disconcertedly, glaring at the leaves. There seemed to be a cluster of leaves that could, with enough imagination, be a bundle of flowers.

"Er... a bouquet?" Eris said quietly. She glanced at her book. "Oh, that means good luck!" She looked up at Neville and he nodded with a nervous smile.

"Can't say the same for you, I'm afraid," said Neville. He squinted at his book. "A cross - trials and suffering, it says." He shifted his gaze apprehensively to Eris, but she just smirked.

"I'm afraid you may be predicting my past, Neville." She chuckled and looked back to Neville's cup, scanning for any other potential shapes she could read for.

After a few minutes of silence between Eris and Neville, there was a shriek of horror followed by the tinkling of broken glass. Eris's head jerked up from her book, where she had been scanning for a picture of anything that could resemble one of the shapes in Neville's cup. 

Neville had shattered her cup, but the scream hadn't come from him. She followed his gaze to the large group huddled near the trapdoor. She caught bits and pieces of what the Professor was saying and what the students were translating, one word repeated often; Grim. Eris gulped. She had skimmed over that section in her book - she knew that the Grim meant death, and she was almost certain she knew who had it. Eris had missed most of the exchange by the time she made it within earshot of Harry Potter and Professor Trelawney. 

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" Harry shouted. Eris watched him for a moment, trying to decide whether he was genuinely upset. He seemed to have been taken by surprise, like the other students, by his sudden temper.

"I think we will leave the lesson here for today," Professor Trelawney said, sounding faraway. "Yes... please pack away your things..." The class moved quickly, but quietly. Eris helped Neville clean up the shattered cup before she grabbed her book bag and moved toward the ladder, following the third year Slytherins in the crowd to the common room for their free period.

Draco and his friends were nowhere to be seen when Eris arrived in the common room. She dropped into a vacant armchair and cracked open her novel. She figured if the others weren't in the common room, they were off doing something stupid and she was far from interested in getting involved.

"Fudge!" 

Eris's head shot up at the sound of her name. She peered over the top of her book and found Blaise looking at her from his seat on the sofa, where he had been playing Wizard's chess with a boy Eris recognized as Maxwell Chambers. It looked as though Blaise had won, judging by Maxwell's thoughtful expression.

"Are you any good?" Blaise asked, his hand gesturing to the board lazily.

Eris sat up and put her book to the side with a smirk. "A bit." She stood and made her way to the sofa opposite Blaise, where Maxwell moved to the side and let her take his place. 

Blaise reset the board with his wand and nodded at her. "White moves first," he said.

The game crawled on until Blaise had taken two of Eris's pawns, a knight, and a rook; Eris had captured three of Blaise's pawns and one of his bishops, while also putting his king in check. 

His response to this was dropping his head into his hands and staring intensely at the board while his captured chessman each urged different moves, their tinny voices overlapping each other; they began to argue which move was better, but had all concluded that the only way to get out of check was to lose either his queen, his last remaining bishop, one of his knights, or to lose.

Blaise sighed deeply, "Shut up, will you?" He snapped at the arguing chessman, who all lapsed into silence, looking deeply offended.

Eris grinned knowingly at the black chessman. She had used this trap on numerous occasions when she played with her father, and her father had vowed to learn it so he could use it against her; of course, Eris never relayed the information and, as a result, her father hadn't triumphed over her at Wizard's chess since she first began playing. This had resulted in the use of silent treatment and extreme pettiness. It seemed even Blaise's pieces knew that no matter the move he made, she could put him back in check on her next turn.

To Eris's surprise, Blaise made the move that would end the game on her next turn.

"Oh, Zabini," Eris cooed. She moved her queen. "Checkmate." The queen lifted her sword and stepped forward, plunging her blade into the black king's chest.

"Wait - oh, bloody hell," Blaise said. He surveyed the board, seeming to be confused as to how he had lost. "You're good, Fudge." He looked up at Eris with a playful smirk. "Rematch tomorrow?"

Eris raised her eyebrows and grinned. "Sounds like a plan."

Blaise waved his wand and the chittering chessman glided back to their spots on the board, ready for another match. "Where'd you learn that?" He asked.

"Chess was the only thing I could do in my free time," she said. "And also the only thing my father and I were willing to do together."

"He taught you well," said Blaise. "Maybe you can tutor me?"

Eris half-laughed. "I don't teach my secrets, Zabini."

He shook his head and grinned. "We'll see, Fudge."

Eris stood up with a sly smirk, going back to the armchair she had been reading in to grab her bookbag.

"See you tomorrow, Zabini!" Eris called to Blaise as she exited the common room to head for the greenhouses.

Herbology had rendered Eris rather useless. She lugged herself after Draco and his posse tiredly, her book bag feeling as if someone had added three more books to it. 

She had thought, surely, she would do well in Herbology, as she was the only one back home who seemed to take care of her mother's house plants. Despite this, Professor Sprout -- however upbeat -- had put Eris to sleep quickly and she managed to stay asleep through the entire class. When the bell had rung, Draco had nudged her. When she hadn't woken, he shoved her off her stool and she had tumbled to the floor of the greenhouse, barely dodging the vampiric plant that lunged for her. Eris had, of course, hit Draco over the head with her copy of Flesh-Eating Trees of the World upon standing up.

Eris dropped down into the empty space across from Draco at the Slytherin table and rested her arms on the table, putting her chin on them. Draco seemed rather distracted with talk about the events on the train and truth be told, Eris was grateful for it, even if she thought the whole thing to be a bit cruel. She closed her eyes and found herself fighting sleep once more.

"Wake up, Fudge!" Draco spoke directly into Eris's ear and she jerked awake. 

"Oy!" She sat up straight and shoved her fist into Draco's shoulder.

"If you don't eat, I'm sending you to St. Mungo's," Draco said matter-of-factly, dropping a spoonful of boiled potatoes onto her plate as he chewed on some bread.

"I had a big breakfast," Eris lied, pushing the plate away.

He stared at her for a moment, incredulous. "You're rubbish at lying, Fudge - I've told you that before, haven't I? You ran off to the dungeons before you could finish your dinner last night, and you didn't eat breakfast." He scooted the plate closer to her again and gestured at the food. "Suit yourself, though. I can't promise to visit you after you fall off your broom." He didn't look at her as he spoke. Rather... he was watching someone else and talking to Eris like he didn't need to pay attention to what he said. 

Eris turned her head and immediately found what it was that had him distracted. An upset, wild-haired Hermione had just shot up from her place at the Gryffindor table and stormed out of the Great Hall. Draco's eyes were on her until she was lost from sight. Eris smirked and turned back to her plate.

Eris stumbled onto the training grounds, where her class had already gathered, the professor nowhere in sight. She spotted a few familiar faces, but none she knew well enough to strike up a conversation with while she waited.

"Line up next to a broom!" The professor, Madam Hooch marched onto the field. Eris couldn't help being reminded of her mother whenever she got upset. Eris abandoned her book bag on the ground next to the nearest stone wall and rushed to find an open broom. She took her place between Daphne Greengrass, whom Eris knew through their limited interaction during the Sorting Ceremony and Theodore Nott. Eris didn't know Theodore well, but knew that his father always seemed to be at Malfoy Manor whenever Eris and her father went to visit Mr. Malfoy - and that he would leave upon seeing the Minister's arrival.

Eris frowned at the memory of being in the chilly Manor, whose temperature happened to be very like the weather. A breeze rippled across the pitch and little bumps rose up on Eris's arms.

Madam Hooch paced up and down the line of students, scrutinizing each face and stopped in front of Eris. She raised her eyebrows for a moment, obviously recognizing that Eris had never been in any of her lessons, then continued down the line.

"Now then, last year you focused mainly on your speed and agility on the broom. For the first term this year, we will be using what you've learned previously"- Eris gulped hard at this; she had never even been this close to a broom before - much less, ridden one. -"and work on a new technique called Rolling." Madam Hooch stopped pacing the line of students, her hands on her hips. "But, to start off this term, let's begin with laps." She lifted the whistle where it had been hanging around her neck and blew into it. Eris's classmates summoned their brooms and took off at the shrill sound of the whistle, beginning their laps almost immediately. 

Eris observed them and went to summon her own broom. She frowned when nothing happened.

"Miss Fudge, I presume?" Madam Hooch approached her.

"Yes," Eris replied, feigning a clueless look.

"Professor Dumbledore informed me of your inexperience with flying." Madam Hooch ran her fingers over her whistle, glancing briefly at the zooming figures above them. "I proposed having you come in for extra practices, but he insisted that was up to you." She raised her impeccably straight eyebrows at Eris, urging her to answer.

"Uh, uhm-" Eris struggled to form a coherent thought. She hadn't expected to be put on the spot like this. She cleared her throat. "Yeah, extra practices. That sounds great."

Madam Hooch broke into a grin, "Excellent. Wednesday mornings before breakfast?" She offered. Eris nodded in response, unsure whether this would be a wise choice given how much catch-up she needed to do for her other subjects. "Good! Now," Madam Hooch started. "Let's begin now with summoning your broom." She nodded her head at the broom lying at Eris's feet. "Raise your right hand over the broom," she instructed. Eris raised her right hand over the broom, keenly aware that a few of her far more experienced classmates were watching as they flew their laps. "Now, say 'up!'"

"Up," mumbled Eris.

"With feeling, Miss Fudge!" Madam Hooch urged.

Eris sighed, feeling a little ridiculous. "Up!" She said, just a little louder.

"Keep trying!"

Eris stared hard at the broom, leveling her unsteady hand. She breathed deeply, and again said, "Up!" The broom handle shot into her hand and she scoffed in relief.

"Good, Miss Fudge, good! Now, step over the broom and angle it upwards, ever so slightly." Eris stepped over the broom. She leaned into it a little, angling herself toward the sky. Her feet left the ground and she swayed in the air. Her heart hammered in her chest as the ball of anxiety in her stomach spread to her muscles, making her movements stiff as Madam Hooch instructed her to practice going back and forth, focusing mainly on her turns. 

Eris went to do this, leaning forward perhaps a bit too much. The broom rocketed forward and Eris found herself unable to recognize that she needed to sit up straight. Instead, she pulled the handle toward her body, allowing herself to be shot at full speed into the sky. She pulled at the handle again; this landed her upside down on the broom, but she lost her hold and the sky rushed past her until her back hit the ground, knocking all air from her lungs.

She gasped for breath, trying to see anything through her blurry vision. Two figures appeared above her and Eris blinked rapidly, still choking for air. Her vision cleared at the same moment she managed to take a deep breath. She sat up quickly, gulping in the sweet, cold air. Daphne and Madam Hooch sat on either side of her, both of her shoulders held in one of their hands to keep her upright.

"Are you okay, Fudge?" Daphne asked, her eyes scrunched in concern. Eris nodded, frantically using her sleeve to wipe her face, the stream from her eyes beginning to slow.

"I think I better take a break, if that's alright," Eris proposed. 

Madam Hooch smirked and agreed with her, helping her to her feet. "Keep practicing your broom summoning until you feel well enough to get back on, then." Madam Hooch handed Eris the fallen broom, then eagerly told Daphne and the others to continue practicing.

By the end of her flying lesson, Eris managed to obtain a better understanding of how to summon her broom as well as mounting it. She was still a little shaky once she got in the air, but she left the training grounds with her chest puffed in pride at what she had managed to accomplish. Daphne commented on her quick learning as they walked to the Great Hall together.

Eris's positive mood was quickly shattered upon sitting next to Pansy and across from Draco's goonies. They were whispering when she arrived, Pansy looking concerned while Crabbe and Goyle's expressions shifted between amusement and annoyance, eyes flitting up to the Gryffindor table and back down frantically.

"-co's father is going to be upset with the two brutes," Crabbe was saying as Eris dropped down. 

"D'ya reckon the half-breed will get fired?" Goyle asked. 

"What're you all on about?" Eris asked. She looked around and finally recognized Draco's absence. "Where's Draco?"

Pansy gazed at her for a moment, as if she thought Eris had been living under a rock. "The hippogriff from Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class attacked him - he-" she hiccuped, averting her gaze to the wooden table. "He's with Madam Pomfrey now."

Eris stilled, looking between the three Slytherins. "You must be joking," she stated. Maybe this was some sort of initiation into their little posse. They stared back at her without saying anything. That was the only confirmation Eris needed. She stood up just as quickly as she had sat down and slung her book bag over her shoulder, taking off at a half-jog to the hospital wing. She knew Draco was stupid, but she didn't realize how much trouble that disposition was going to get him into, especially on the first day of classes.

"Madam Pomfrey, is Malfoy still here?" Eris asked in between pants; she had jogged once she got out of the Great Hall and she must have miscalculated just how far it was. 

Madam Pomfrey had been rustling through some papers on her desk, facing away from the door when Eris arrived, but she turned upon hearing Eris's question. "Ah, yes. He's resting now, though. You can come visit him after dinner." She crooned, holding an old clipboard in her hands.

"All due respect, Madam Pomfrey, but I believe that the boy has done something stupid and he needs to be scolded immediately." Eris knew perfectly well about the sensitivity with which hippogriffs should be treated from when her mother had to do immense amounts of research on the beasts for work, and she also knew how ignorant Draco could be. 

Madam Pomfrey half-smiled - Eris had the impression she knew it was true. "Sorry Miss Fudge, but I'm afraid he needs to rest. Magic doesn't replenish the energy needed for faster healing, much as we might hate it." She tickled her quill against Eris's nose and brushed past her to check on a few of her other patients, who seemed to be faking all sorts of illnesses to get out of classes (Eris thought this to be ridiculous - it was only the first day). 

Eris watched Madam Pomfrey as she went to check on a Ravenclaw first year who was clutching her stomach with a forced grimace of pain. Eris shuffled forward to the patient beds and looked around for Draco. She spotted him, sleeping peacefully with his arm held across his chest by a cloth sling in one of the backmost beds. Eris scoffed. Here he was, resting as if he was a well-cared-for child, while his friends conspire over whether or not a man will lose his job.

As Eris exited the hospital wing, someone rounded the corner; someone with the same shock of white-blond hair as Draco. 

"Mr. Malfoy," said Eris, more out of surprise than as a greeting.

Mr. Malfoy paused in the hall, his eyebrows raised. "Miss Fudge," he greeted her. "Your father told me you would attend this wretched school this year." He looked her up and down. "I take it you know what has happened to Draco?"

Eris nodded, shocked into silence. Obviously, he was going to come, but Eris hadn't realized it would be so quick.

"Then I hope you wouldn't be so foolish as to continue your education at an institution that so clearly violates your safety in the coming years." Mr. Malfoy nodded once more, then brushed past Eris.

"Oh, Mr. Malfoy!" Eris heard Madam Pomfrey squeak. "He's right there in the back, sir."

After Eris had reappeared in her seat at the Slytherin table, she relayed all she knew about Draco's condition, as well as the fact that his father had already arrived. They were all just as shocked as she had been. This shock steadily grew into further conspiracies about the professor's job and the repercussions the hippogriff would undoubtedly face.

Eris thought about going to visit Draco after dinner, but it seemed that Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle had the same idea and Eris had had about enough of their antics for the night. Instead, she retired to the Slytherin dungeon and collapsed with Opi on the emerald-green sofa next to the fireplace. She stroked Opi's head and stared into the fire, allowing her mind to wander to less pressing matters, and eventually drifted off into a light sleep.

"Couldn't bother to visit after a trauma like mine?" Eris started awake, sending the formerly-slumbering Opi fleeing to her dormitory. Eris inspected around her, blinking rapidly against the dying light of the fire. She saw the slender, white-haired figure standing in front of her and slumped back against the sofa.

"I thought about it," Eris retorted, beginning to rub the sleep from her eyes as she stood up. She looked at Draco and frowned at the cloth sling still holding his arm close to his chest. She knew very well that Madam Pomfrey had already healed his arm and that bandages would be unnecessary. "It seemed you had enough company as it was."

Draco hummed in response. 

Eris assumed that he didn't consider it a good enough excuse, but she took it - she was too tired to do much else. 

"Pansy tells me you seemed bugged at dinner," Draco commented, a smirk playing about his mouth. "Were you worried about me?" 

"Contrary to apparent popular belief," Eris said. "I don't worry about people who have been injured due to their own stupidity." Eris shoved a balled fist into Draco's arm. He flinched, but didn't seem to be in any pain. "Nor people who use healed injuries to earn punishments for others." She narrowed her eyes up at Draco and brushed past him.

"I could tell-"

"Your father, yes. What do you think he will be able to do to his boss's daughter?" Eris didn't turn back when she spoke, she was more concerned with getting to her bed than dealing with Draco; he didn't need to know that however much she paraded her father's influence, she would rather go to Azkaban than ask him for help. "If you insist on remaining 'injured,' though"- Eris turned back, but continued to walk backward towards the dormitory entrance. -"I suggest you improve your acting for lessons tomorrow."


	3. ◇Animus Iratus◇

Eris was woken next Thursday morning by a musty old pillow being thrown at her face. She sat up quickly and let the pillow fall to the floor. Pansy and Milicent were doubled over in laughter.

"What was the meaning of that?" Eris exclaimed with a laugh, picking up the pillow and tossing it back at Pansy who caught it easily and set it back down on her bed. 

Eris chuckled as she stood up from her bed, picking up her school robes from the floor where she'd tossed them the previous night. 

"You sounded like you might start screaming in your sleep," Milicent said.

Eris stilled. Trying her best not to hint that the comment had affected her in any way, she slipped into her uniform without responding to Milicent, swiping the sweat from her forehead.

The girls arrived in the Great Hall at the same moment the food appeared on the golden platters. Pansy grabbed one of Eris's hands and took off at a light jog to the open spots next to the rest of her friends. Eris looked down the table, catching sight of Crabbe and Goyle, with no Draco in sight. 

"Do you think he went back to Madam Pomfrey last night? He seemed to be in a right bit of pain when we visited him yesterday," Pansy commented when she saw Eris's curious glance down the table. 

Eris didn't notice the small sort of snort that escaped her as she lifted her water cup to her mouth. Draco had opted out of classes for the last week. Eris had visited him in the hospital wing on numerous occasions and had been promptly kicked out by Madam Pomfrey when she made a fuss over Draco's false pain.

"Is there something funny?" Pansy asked, looking as if the noise Eris made had been a personal attack. Eris frantically put her cup down and wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her robe, shaking her head no. Pansy looked at her for a moment more before returning her attention to the other girls. "Do you think his arm will be better before the quidditch match? Slytherin is supposed to play Gryffindor."

"He's probably going to milk this out as much as he can," Eris muttered behind her raspberry scone. Pansy and her friends didn't seem to notice the comment, so Eris continued to eat; as much as she wished she could just sip on her water and that would be enough.

The mail came just then and Abernathy appeared again in front of Eris. She rolled her eyes, took the letter from Abernathy and watched as he took off. She tucked the letter under her plate and left it there when she headed off to her first lesson.

Draco reappeared during double Potions after lunch, studying Potter smugly as Pansy cooed over his bandaged arm, still in its sling. He set up his cauldron next to Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, glancing briefly back at Eris as he did. 

"Sir," Draco called Professor Snape. Eris whipped her head around. "Sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm-"

"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," Snape said, resolving the issue coolly. 

Eris rolled her eyes - it seemed to be all she would do in regards to Draco for a while. Eris went back to cutting her own daisy roots, glancing at her book every so often to see what she would need to do next. She only looked up when Snape went to Draco's table and examined the poorly cut roots Ronald had provided and Draco had complained about. 

"Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley," Snape sneered. 

Eris winced for Ronald, but found it quite amusing as he opened and closed his mouth angrily. She had watched him meticulously cutting his own roots for most of the class. Both Ronald and Harry looked equally flabbergasted as Snape retreated from their table.

Eris knew that Draco had Snape wrapped around his finger when it came to getting around his issues in class. But this was far more ridiculous than anything she had imagined when he had bragged about it to her in the hospital wing.

It didn't take long for Draco to come upon the subject of his injury. Araminta Warbeck had gladly taken over her and Eris's potion, as Eris was only half paying attention now. 

"Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" Draco asked the other boys.

Ronald responded so quietly Eris could barely make it out, but it sounded something like, "None of your business."

"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," Draco said, quite obviously mocking their future distress over this information. Eris watched as both Ronald and Harry looked at Draco, fury in their eyes. "Father's not very happy about my injury-"

"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," Ronald interjected with a scowl. 

Eris smirked. At least someone wasn't falling for Draco's charade.

"-he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic." Eris froze at this. Draco peered at her over his shoulder for barely a second. "Father's got a lot of influence there, you know. And a lasting injury like this" - he gave a fake sigh - "who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?" He looked remarkably proud of this announcement and it took every ounce of energy Eris had not to go over and smack him upside the head. She knew it was probable that what he said about his father going to the Ministry was true, but that didn't mean she needed to be content with it. Eris was no longer listening to the conversation. Rather, she was preparing her argument with Draco later. She was soon distracted by Neville's issues with his potion that Snape was openly criticizing him for.

Eris returned her attention to the potion, apologizing to Araminta who just nodded in acknowledgement and continued to work over the cauldron. Eris sliced a caterpillar, pushing the little bits over to Araminta as she finished.

"Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?" Eris heard Draco ask Harry. She flicked her head to glare at the back of his head. He was referring to a high-profile prisoner in Azkaban that had recently escaped - hence the dementor's presence on school grounds.

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Ronald growled. Eris was sure that her rage couldn't match either Ronald's or Harry's, but it was there and she could sense that they were all eager to pummel the brat.

"Don't you know, Potter?" Draco leered, leaning against the table. 

"Know what?" Harry retorted, his eyes narrowed at Draco from behind his glasses.

Draco laughed, as if he was about to tell Harry something that everyone else already knew. "Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself." Eris didn't have time to contemplate what Draco might be talking about before Harry snapped back.

"What are you talking about?"

Draco didn't get a chance to reply as Snape instructed the class on the next part of the potion-making process, casting a harsh look at Eris over Draco's shoulder.

"Hand me the shrivelfig," Araminta told Eris. Eris shoved the skinned fig over to her, barely containing her annoyance at Draco. She glared at the back of his head again as he laughed in chorus with Crabbe and Goyle at Neville Longbottom's panicked appearance. 

After Neville's potion proved to be successful and Hermione Granger was revealed to have helped him, earning Gryffindor subtracted points, everyone packed up to go to lunch. 

"Miss Fudge, stay for a moment." Professor Snape called just as Eris was about to exit the classroom. 

Eris froze in the doorway. 

Draco looked back at her and stopped, furrowing his brows. 

She gestured for him to go on without her, feigning a sweet smile.

"We'll save you a seat!" Goyle called to her. She shot a half-smile at him as Draco shoved him in the shoulder with a sour look.

Eris moved back fully into the classroom and approached Professor Snape's desk.

"The Headmaster tells me you have a proficiency for potions," he commented without looking up from the parchments on his desk. "I expected you to demonstrate that proficiency in class, but..." he looked up at her. "You seemed to be distracted."

"Yes, well-"

"I don't want your excuses, Miss Fudge," Snape cut her off. "From here forward, I expect it to no longer be an issue." 

Eris stared at him. Had she done something to upset him? 

"You're dismissed." 

Instead of leaving, however, Eris stayed, fingers curled into fists around the strap of her book bag. "Sir, I don't know what Professor Dumbledore told you, but I have never been more than mediocre in my potions studies," she explained. "Therefore, I don't think it entirely appropriate for you to have such high expectations of me in your class." She breathed deeply. Snape narrowed his eyes at her from behind his greasy black hair. "With all due respect, of course," Eris added, more as an afterthought rather than an actual show of respect. She whirled around, exiting the classroom as calmly as she could manage.

Eris was still recovering from her confrontation with Snape when she joined Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle; her mouth was pressed into a thin line and her eyebrows creased together as she mulled over the conversation and what Dumbledore could have possibly told Professor Snape. 

"What did the professor want?" Goyle asked Eris as she poured herself a cup of water. She glanced at the staff table and watched the headmaster with a critical eye for a few moments; he seemed to be absorbed in a conversation with Professor Flitwick.

"He thought I was distracted during class." Eris replied, tilting the cup to her mouth. She glared over the rim of her cup at Draco.

"Distracted by what?" Draco asked as he signaled for Goyle to scoop some mashed potatoes onto his plate by lifting his plate toward the pot with his free hand; he seemed to be far more engrossed in filling his plate than the current conversation.

Eris sighed and set down her cup, gesturing for Crabbe to hand her the platter of bread rolls as she swallowed. "Some tosser with a predisposition for being a distraction."

"I hear ya! Longbottom was hilarious!" Goyle exclaimed as though he knew exactly what Eris was talking about. Eris scanned him, rolling her eyes as she turned her attention back to filling her plate. The boys laughed about Neville for a little while longer before Eris gave up on trying to sit through it. She tossed what was left of her bread roll onto her plate and stood. 

"Where are you off to?" Draco asked.

Eris glared at him. "A walk," she muttered as she threw her bag onto her shoulder. She stamped out of the Great Hall in a hurry, without a particular destination in mind.


	4. ◇Tedium◇

Eris landed up in the library after she left the Great Hall and didn't see anyone from her house again until their Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Gryffindor. She knew this meant she would have to witness Draco's relentless teasing of the Potter boy and the professor, but she figured there wasn't anything she could do about it with her current temper.

Professor Lupin didn't show up until the class had already settled in. When he arrived, he moved to the desk at the front of the room and set down his beaten briefcase.

"Should we really trust a gargoyle like him to teach us when he can't even take care of his briefcase?" Draco muttered to Crabbe. Crabbe, Goyle and a few of the surrounding Slytherins stifled sniggers, but Eris ignored them and returned her attention to the professor.

"Good afternoon," he began. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today's will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands." Eris slipped her book into her bag, with some relief at the prospect of not having to spend another minute staring at a book. She double-checked that her wand was safely secured in her robes and remembered vaguely what it was like to first hold it and how happy she'd been when she did. Mr. Ollivander had told her it was cedar wood with a unicorn hair core. At the time, hearing the word unicorn was more than enough to get her excited, especially when she knew that her school would have some on the grounds.

"Right then, If you'd follow me," Lupin said, making his way back to the classroom door. Eris and the rest of the class followed the professor rather hesitantly out of the classroom. He led them down the corridor and around the corner. 

Peeves the Poltergeist was hovering upside down near a door, stuffing what Eris could only describe as chewing gum into the keyhole. He didn't look up until he saw Lupin.

Almost immediately, Peeves broke into an off-beat song. "Loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin, loony, loopy Lupin-" 

"I'd take that gum out of the keyhole if I were you, Peeves," Professor Lupin said coolly. "Mr. Filch won't be able to get in to his brooms." Peeves blew a wet raspberry at Lupin, earning scattered laughter from the Slytherins and a smirk from Eris.

Lupin looked over his shoulder, "This is a useful little spell, please watch closely." He took his wand out and called "Waddiwasi!" as he pointed it at Peeves. The chewing gum rocketed out of the keyhole and right down Peeves's left nostril; he left almost as quickly as the gum had shot out of the keyhole.

As Peeves's feet disappeared around the corner Eris heard someone call from closer to Lupin. "Cool, sir!" 

"Thank you, Dean." Professor Lupin nodded at the student, then addressed the rest of the class. "Shall we proceed?"

"He's a common goblin," Draco whispered. "I think he's just showing off." The boys and Pansy chuckled to themselves and Draco caught Eris's shoulder with his unbandaged hand as they began to walk again. "Don't you think? He must be trying to make up for his lacking qualifications as a teacher." Eris shot him a cold glare over her shoulder and shrugged out of his grip, hurrying to catch up with the rest of the class.

"What's got your wand in a knot?" Draco asked her as the class filed into the staff room, occupied only by Professor Snape. Eris ignored Draco's question and glared at Professor Snape, though she knew he couldn't see her.

Lupin had hung back to make sure all the students made it inside and so he could close the door behind them, but Snape stopped him.

"Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this." He moved past the students, and stopped just before reaching the door, facing the professor. "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult." He turned a glittering eye on Hermione Granger. "Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."

Eris looked over to Neville, whose face was flushed a deep red color and Hermione, whose lips pursed and eyebrows crawled low on her head.

"I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," Lupin replied evenly. 

Neville seemed to want to contract within himself and disappear forever. 

Snape frowned even deeper than he always did and left, glancing briefly at Eris and Draco as he exited the staffroom, the door shutting behind him with a snap.

"Now then," Professor Lupin began. 

Draco nudged Eris, "Fudge, what's up?" He demanded.

"Nothing, now shut up!" Eris hissed back. She lifted her chin, following the rest of the class to the end of the room, where an old wardrobe stood. Lupin went to stand next to it and the wardrobe rattled as if there was something doing a jig inside it.

"Nothing to worry about," Lupin said calmly upon seeing the frightened looks on some of the students' faces. "There's a boggart in there."

"Bollocks," Draco muttered behind her, so quiet that only she heard it. She looked back at him, only to see all laughter drained from his face; in fact, he seemed to be even paler than usual.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock." Lupin grinned, as though he enjoyed frightening the students. "This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third-years some practice."

"This seems a little too practical for the first lesson of the year, don't you think?" Draco said, earning scattered agreement from the others. He didn't seem at all concerned about the timing of the lesson, but rather the lesson itself. Eris chose to ignore this; if it frightened him, it was his own problem. She was not going to try to get him out of this, much as he would like her to, judging by his wide eyes as he tried to get her attention. He could use his "injury" to escape the lesson for all she cared.

"So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?" Lupin asked.

Eris couldn't help but notice when Hermione Granger's hand shot into the air eagerly.

"It's a shape-shifter. It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most," she explained, watching the wardrobe handle rattle.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." Lupin nodded at Hermione, who was grinning widely. "So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears." As Lupin explained this, Eris could sense the tension rising in Draco; he shifted restlessly behind her and Eris didn't need to look at him to know he was still staring at the wardrobe. "This means that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?" said Lupin.

Draco stepped forward suddenly, his tension gone; replaced by whatever caused him to glare heatedly at the Potter boy.

"Er - because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?" Harry answered this, his eyes flitting to Hermione as he did (she had been staring at Lupin as she stretched her hand to the sky, ready to answer the question if Harry hadn't been able to).

"Precisely. It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a boggart make that very same mistake - tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening.

"The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter." 

Eris smirked at this. She herself had seen her father repel a boggart in the very way that Lupin was insinuating they do now. It had been a rather ridiculous moment for her father. Rita Skeeter, an already absurd-looking woman, had been made into a balloon, still asking all her pesky questions when she emerged from under the sink. Her mother had hit her father on the shoulder once the boggart was dispelled, scolding him for not fearing her more than Rita Skeeter.

"What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing." Lupin looked across the students with a smirk. "We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" The class mimicked him in unison.

"Good," Professor Lupin said. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone is not enough. And this is where you come in, Neville."

Neville went wide-eyed and moved forward through the split in the crowd that the Gryffindors had created for him. He was visibly shaking, even from where Eris stood near the door.

"He thinks that niffler is going to be able to pull this off?" Crabbe teased quietly. Eris sighed forcefully, trying to brush off the comment. She could feel the confused glares she received from the Slytherins, but did nothing to address them.

"Right, Neville. First things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?" Lupin asked Neville, who hadn't bothered to look away from the wardrobe since he'd been called upon. 

He tried to speak, but no noise came out.

"Didn't catch that, Neville, sorry." Lupin patted his shoulder in support.

Neville's eyes flitted around nervously; it looked as if he was hoping for someone to volunteer to take his place. He looked back at the wardrobe, then down at the floor and said so quietly that Eris had to strain to hear him, "Professor Snape." The class erupted in laughter, except for Professor Lupin and Eris. She couldn't blame the boy - Snape was rather intimidating. Although, to call him her worst fear would be far-fetched.

Lupin tilted his head thoughtfully. "Professor Snape... hmmm... Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?" He asked.

Neville paused, "Er - yes. But - I don't want the boggart to turn into her either," he added quickly.

"That numpty is afraid of everything, isn't he?" Draco teased.

Eris whirled on him, careful not to alert any of her surrounding classmates. "Keep your mouths shut, all of you!" She glanced at each boy in turn, her eyebrows arched high on her forehead. "There are very few people who care for your comments, and I am not one of them," she hissed, glaring. The boys stared at her in shock; Goyle's mouth hung open and Crabbe looked as if he was looking for something to say - Draco, however, seemed confused. She was just glad it got them to shut up.

Eris turned back to the lesson, arms crossed over her chest. 

"Right then," Professor Lupin said. "Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind's eye?" Eris was under the impression that she had missed something while she scolded the boys, but she figured it wouldn't be long until she found out what Professor Lupin was talking about.

"Yes," said Neville, so anxiously that it sounded more like a question than a response.

"When the boggart comes bursting out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will assume the form of Professor Snape," Lupin explained. "And you will raise your wand - thus - and cry 'Riddikulus' - and concentrate hard on your grandmother's clothes. If all goes well, Professor Boggart Snape will be forced into that vulture-topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag." This caused some laughter throughout the students, making the boggart inside the wardrobe bump against the inside more violently.

"If Neville is successful, the boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn." He was addressing the whole class this time, leaving Neville to focus intensely on his task. "I would like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..." A steady silence settled over the class as everyone began to think.

Now that she was presented with the issue, Eris wasn't sure what to expect. She heard the boys chuckling behind her, but didn't turn to hear what their fears were, nor the ways they could make them laughable. 

She thought back to everything that has ever scared her. Her mother, however kind, could be the most terrifying person in the room, given the right reason; her father was the same, but she wasn't all that afraid of them. For her, their anger was a mere annoyance. She thought for a moment that maybe she should expect a jellyfish -- she'd always been somewhat afraid of them; to the point where she refused to go deeper than her ankles into the ocean. To make it laughable, though? It was possible to do so, but she couldn't even begin to think of anything specific before she was quickly interrupted by Professor Lupin.

"Everyone ready?"

There was scattered agreement as the Professor moved everyone against the far wall, leaving Neville to brave the wardrobe on his own.

"On the count of three, Neville." Lupin was pointing his wand at the handle of the wardrobe. "One - two - three - now!" Sparks shot from the end of Lupin's wand at the handle and the wardrobe burst open. Professor Snape, with his robes billowing behind him despite the lack of a draft, stepped out, his dark eyes glittering maliciously at Neville.

Neville looked as if he was about to dash out of the room, his chin quivering as he lifted his wand. "R - r - riddikulus!" he managed. A loud cracking noise ripped the air and Snape stumbled back. He was now wearing the exact clothes Professor Lupin had just described. 

There was a silent pause, then roars of laughter.

"Parvati! Forward!" Lupin called over the din.

Student after student was called upon, and the pit in Eris's stomach grew larger and larger. She was still struggling to come up with a way to make a jellyfish laughable, nor if that was even close to what the boggart would morph itself into. She gulped at the prospect of not knowing what to expect.

Before Lupin could get close to calling her name, however, a Gryffindor girl Eris didn't recognize became too frightened by Ronald Weasley's boggart and ran off, leaving the legless spider at Harry Potter's feet. Harry looked more ready than Eris was sure she did, but Lupin rushed forward before the boggart had a chance to accommodate Harry's fear. Eris didn't register what occurred after that before Lupin called on Neville to finish off the boggart. And he did so rather smoothly, to the class's surprise. The boggart exploded into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone.

"Excellent! Excellent, Neville!" Eris heard the praise from Lupin, but she was too distracted to listen to much else. She wasn't entirely sure a jellyfish was her worst fear or that it was even fear that drove her to hate the creatures so much. But if that wasn't it, then what was? And would she ever be able to face her fears like the other students had?

She was still lost in thought as the lesson ended, hearing briefly to her dismay that Lupin wanted a summary on the boggarts chapter handed in on Monday.

Draco attempted to get Eris's attention after lessons were over. She dodged him by sitting with Pansy and her friends at dinner. Pansy had begun questioning her about the letter Eris left under her plate that morning, but Eris told her it was nothing to worry about. Pansy left it alone rather hesitantly, casting her suspicious looks if her father was mentioned in conversation. Eris opted to ignore it. A lot had happened in one day, and Eris was in no mood to talk about it, afraid her temper might flare if anyone talked to her about anything other than the weather or how good the food was. 

As usual, Eris left dinner early; this time, to get a move-on with her homework; she had let it pile up far too much over the last week.

She began to mull over what work to start with as she walked past a pair of whispering Hufflepuffs making their way to the Great Hall, when Draco suddenly appeared at her side. She didn't start, but she couldn't deny the lurch in her stomach.

"Do you plan on avoiding me for the rest of the year? I'd love to know now so I don't need to act like I care later on," Draco said rather casually. Eris could hear the joking edge in his voice though.

"I'd love to, but you're making it rather difficult," Eris shot back, staring ahead of her as the dungeon stairs swung into view.

"Come on, Fudge," Draco whined. "You've been peeved all day! What's your deal?" He stopped walking and Eris whirled to face him.

"My deal?" She repeated. "I don't have one, but clearly"- she shot an irritated look at his arm. -"you do." She twirled around again, descending the stairs to the dungeons, leaving Draco in the entrance hall.


End file.
